Hello and welcome! This is where you can meet other parents of September 2012 kids and share parenting stories as your children grow.
Here is a little refresher on the community guidelines and a more basic breakdown of how they apply to the posts on the board. If at any time you have any questions please feel free to message any of the GO's (Group Owners) that are listed at the top of the member section off to the left of the screen.
*Please notice that at the very upper right corner (this may be slightly different for app users, but should be close) there is a '?' at the end of the links, if you click on that at any time it will take you to all commonly used links including commonly used acronyms/abbreviations as well as the guidelines.
Let's start with the community guidelines and TOS, you all should've read both when you signed up for your accounts.
http://www.babycenter.com/community-help-guidelines
In there they also give a wonderful breakdown of how some things count as violations and some don't, you can refer to it at any time when you aren't sure if what you're reading is a violation and needs to be reported or not. Because, believe it or not, repeatedly reporting non-violations is actually a violation in itself, it counts as a disruption because you are taking up out time investigating things that don't have any violations when we could be reading threads that may actually have one, so please keep that in mind.
Violations vs non-violations
1)Personal attacks, this is most common. You can not call anyone any form of name, not matter how small it seems to you, and using crafty words to do it do not make it any better. Calling someone shallow or narrow minded is the same thing as calling them stupid or selfish, you can't do that. But, it is not a violation to say that about a statement (ie: That statement sounded very bitchy. or That was a very shitty thing to say. Neither of those are the same as saying 'You are a bitch.'). Attacks on someone's spelling or grammar is also not acceptable, especially in the middle of a debate, but it is also not a violation for someone to be honest and say something along the lines of "I'd love to help you out, but I just can't make out what your post said because of the spelling/lack of punctuation.", as many people won't read or be able to help in those situations.
2)Swearing, doing so is NOT a violation, no matter how much you don't care for what the person said. Now, if the person drops the F bomb every other word then it can be counted as excessive and we may ask that it be cleaned up a bit, but something truly has to be in excess to be a violation, not 2 or 3 swear words total unless it's a 5 word sentence and nothing more.
3)'Mean posts', mean is a pereception and just because one person sees it that way does not make it so. If the post is not bashing anyone, is not a personal attack and really is just someone disagreeing strongly, that does NOT make it a violation of anything.
4) Bullying. Yes, bullying does happen, but several people who all disgree with someone is not bullying. BBC does not tollerate actual bullying though, so if several people gang up on 1 person and are taking jabs that all coincide and most likely have nothing to do with the topic of the thread, then that will be dealt with (does not count it the topic of the thread has shifted from the OP and a whole new topic is being discussed, which is also NOT a violation). Bullying is also counted, or can also be called harassment, if someone is intentionally following 1 person from thread to thread and causing problems, but it takes a little more to prove sometimes.
5)Retarded. This word can NOT be used unless in it's technical context. It has been determined by the powers that be of Baby Center that this word is too negative for many posters and does not sit well with the intended nature of these boards.
6)This is a support board and is the intended nature of it all. Now, that does not mean that people can't disagree with you or that things that are not pregnancy related can not be discussed.
7)This is a PUBLIC FORUM. That means that anyone can be reading what you put out there, so please think about the things you share before doing so. We will not delete threads upon request simply because you don't like who is responding or what they're saying. We will however help in cases where there is private or sensitive information shared that shouldn't have been, or in extreme cases of violations. If you regret posting something that doesn't fall in either of those then you are encouraged to simply change your original post and can delete your own added comments, if you opt to change your OP to a violation to get it deleted then understand that that will also be sent to the community and you may be putting your entire account in jeapordy.
*One other exception is any form of military info that shouldn't be shared. You can NOT post about comings or goings of any soldiers, even though we know you are sad or excited in those times. Those posts will be removed in their entirety for the safety of our troops and to keep their arrivals on schedule and not delayed because someone was overly excited.
8)Linking. This is a big open one, because several things can fall under it and they each have their own rules. If you see a great sale on something you think others here would like then feel free to share, as long as it's not any form of referral link. If you are commenting on a post and feel that there is a board that might help in that situation then please feel free to share it with the OP (example: the pumping moms board for those with pumping questions, the food allergy boards, large families, etc). If you are GO of another board and want to share it as it's own post we simply ask that you give us a heads up first (it's actually in the GO guidelines to do so) so we can make sure it is actually a board that may help some and not just stir up trouble, we also will not approve any private boards to be advertised since we can't make sure they're helpful and ask that you simply link to them in your siggy instead. You can NOT solicite in any form. This means no links to other sites where you get credit in any way such as referral points on sites like Zulily or things you sell such as on Etsy, you are welcome to link in your siggy though. Blog links also can not have any referral credits or anything like that as well as you can't link to a blog or site where they as for funds or contributions at all (everyone is sad for little Johnny, but if they have a link to donate to his cause on the site then you can not directly link to it).
There will always be more, but these are the ones we've seen so far and wanted to make sure to discuss and get out there. I'm sorry if this got long, there wasn't much I could condense and still have all of the info in there. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask any of us or even the community who can always be reached at community@babycenter.com
and the links:
Guidelines: http://www.babycenter.com/community-help-guidelines
acronyms: http://www.babycenter.com/community-help-abbreviations
General help page: http://www.babycenter.com/community-help